Ziaul Haque was born into a very poor family at Chama Mushribhuja village in Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj in 1938. A curd seller by profession, Ziaul Haque grew up seeing poverty and illiteracy. A small businessman, Ziaul Haque and his family led a very humble life, but this could not break their spirit. Every day, he purchased one or two books and built this huge library. He could study until class five because of the extreme poverty and unfavorable environment of the village. He helped the poor and meritorious students of the area by purchasing them different educational equipment even when he was in the midst of extreme poverty. In 1959, he handed over five sets of books to five students of class six in Chama Mushribhuja and the neighboring village, and from there, his great work basically did a good start. Not only books, but he also started giving educational equipment like notebooks, pens, pencils, chalk, bags etc. When he had many books in his collection after independence, he established the "Ziaul Haque Family Library" in 1980.
People all over Bangladesh came to know his name when local newspapers like Chapainawabganj’s The Daily Nawab, Rajshahi’s The Daily Dinkal and The Daily Sonali Sangbad published reports about his library. Later, Ziaul Haque changed the name of his library to ‘Ziaul Haque Islami Library’. Apart from the mentioned daily newspapers, articles about his established library were published in some national newspapers, including Prothom Alo at various times. In 2002, the greatness and praise of Ziaul Haque spread everywhere after a detailed report about the ‘Ziaul Haque Islami Library’ was telecast on Ekushey Television (ETV). From April 12 to May 15, Uniliver Bangladesh Ltd., in collaboration with Adcom, an advertising agency, published an advertisement where it sought help from the people to look for “White Hearted Humans.” It created a wide response and exuberance among people when the advertisement was aired on all television channels, including Bangladesh Television and major national dailies.
Three thousand nominations were submitted. A team of journalists from daily newspapers made the initial selection. The journalist team made a list of 50 people in the second stage. At the end of the on-site observation by a local reporter of the NTV channel, Adcom and Uniliver Bangladesh Limited prepared a short list of 20 people. In the final round, with the presence of national personalities like journalist Matiur Rahman, Rokia Afzal Rahman and Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya as selectors, the top 10 ‘White Hearted Humans’ were selected. Among them, Ziaul Haque from a remote village in Bholahat upazilla made it into the list.
On February 2, 2007, ten people who were selected as ‘White Hearted Humans’ were officially honored at Hotel Sheraton in Dhaka with the presence of distinguished guests, military, high-ranking government officials, writers, artists, intellectuals, journalists and advisors of the then caretaker government. At that ceremony, each was awarded a gold medal, a certificate, and two lakh taka. National dailies published detailed reports, television channels telecast documentaries while NTV broadcast the ‘White Hearted Humans’ award ceremony live on February 10, 2007, where these people were honored.
2007 was an eventful year for Ziaul Haque. After receiving grants from HSBC, many charitable Bangladeshis provided Tk 2 lakh from Italy and Canada and Tk 1 lakh from Norway. Dr. Fazlur Rahman, a London-based Bangladeshi expatriate, donated 200 pounds, and the Dhaka Freedom Foundation donated books worth Tk 2 lakh and a bookshelf worth Tk 25,000, which further enriched Ziaul Haque’s library. In addition, he also received financial assistance from local organizations. With this money, Ziaul Haque bought a piece of land where he built a room for his library and an extra room for himself and started living there. He donated a large portion of his grant money to charitable causes.
Apart from buying books, he also purchased a few cupboards with the grant money. At present, the number of books in this library is around 20,000. His library is spreading the light of knowledge among local inhabitants. Ziaul Haque’s library also contains almost 600 sets of school and college-level textbooks, which he distributes among meritorious students from poor families free of cost. Then they return the books after completing their studies. In this way, the ‘Curd Seller Ziaul Haque’ is doing a social service by allowing the students to become educated, thus giving them new opportunities. Aside from Bholahat upazila, students from the villages of Gomostapur, Shibganj, Nachol and Nawabganj upazila are benefiting from his library.
Aside from winning the NTV ‘White Hearted Humans’ award in 2007, this education enthusiast and social change maker received numerous awards from the Chapainawabganj District Administration in 1999, Rohanpur Yusuf Ali College in 1993, Bholahat Student Welfare Association in 2003, and Dhaka-based Chapainawabganj Zila Samity in 2010. Alongside selling curd, looking after the library and doing other public welfare work, Ziaul Haque at present is playing the role of a director as one of the founding members of Jamia Arabia Islamia Madrasha in Bholahat. Ziaul Haque of Chapainawabganj has already become a living legend and gained national and international fame.
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